TWENTY-THREE

Wellness
SUSTAIN IT

Ponder this: Are they sick or tired?

Does your organization insist on yearly physicals? Does it invest in gymnasiums, volleyball courts, or stress management workshops? If you’re laughing, keep reading. Companies that take wellness seriously find that the payoff is great, not only in retention, but also in energy for the job and in productivity. But this chapter is not about what the corporation can do. We are interested in how you, the manager, can enhance your team’s wellness.

One manager in Dublin suggested walking desks⁵⁰ as a way for his employees to get and stay fit. Some thought it was a joke—but he was serious! Another manager in Spain transformed a closet into the perfect space for a much-needed power nap. She was happy to report that in Spain the siesta is still alive and well and so are her employees! Daily naps have been shown to correlate with lower coronary mortality and greater long-term health.⁵¹ Makes you want to take a nap, doesn’t it?

What are you doing to encourage the wellness of your talented people?

Wellness and Survival of the Fit

Today’s workplace is typically high-energy and highly productive. To play successfully within it, you and your employees must be well and fit, mentally, emotionally, and physically. In this competitive environment, wellness is a “must have” rather than a “nice to have.” Without it, you simply will not win. By focusing on your employees’ wellness, you can increase the odds that they will stay and play effectively on your team.

What Is Wellness?

To one person, wellness means that he can enter the Dead Sea Marathon and finish in four hours. To another, it may mean finally being free of migraine headaches. To another, it may mean slimming down or reducing stress and high blood pressure before the next physical exam.

We define wellness as a state of physical, mental, and emotional fitness. Some might call it well-being. To capture a clear picture of it, you might need to think back to a recent vacation when you felt incredibly relaxed, physically healthy and energetic, mentally sharp (maybe even creative), and emotionally satisfied. It may seem unreasonable to expect that you or your employees will feel at work like you feel on vacation, but it is useful to have the “perfect world” scenario in mind as you strive to increase your employees’ fitness and wellness levels.

Show interest in your employees’ well-being. Here’s what we are talking about.

GO TO
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Understand
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Tanya’s boss finally did what she had wanted him to do weeks earlier. He did not pry but just offered to help. Tanya began to cry (this time with gratitude) and explained that she was having health problems and that her responsibilities as a mother and a member of his team were just more than she could handle. She said that it was the stress of balancing everything that was getting her down, not the illness itself.

Within minutes, a talented employee’s resignation turned into a plan for how Tanya would manage her work and family responsibilities while she regained her health. The plan included working from home two days a week, as well as beginning work earlier in the morning and going home early in the afternoon. Tanya’s loyalty and commitment to her boss and her team skyrocketed, her productivity remained high, and within a few months she was back on her original schedule and feeling great.

Tanya’s boss did the right thing just in time for Tanya, the team, and himself. He asked what he could do and then brainstormed solutions with his valuable employee. You can bet that Tanya will not be easily enticed away to a new team or opportunity. The only thing he could have done better would have been to talk to her earlier.

Whether your employee faces a physical problem, stress, or an emotional challenge, your response as a manager can be consistent: ask how you can help and then collaborate on a plan.

The “B” Word (Balance)

Most of us need a job, and all of us want a life. We should be able to have both.

A senior executive lamented, “I haven’t called my mother in a month, and I’m six months overdue for a mammogram. Both issues weigh on my mind and increase my stress.” Workers want a break, and they want a life outside work. They want time to call Mom and get a checkup.

Balance between work and personal life contributes to wellness and constantly challenges the wellness-minded manager. One team we know has spent so much time in recent years dealing with the issue of balance that they now call it the “B” word. It is almost off-limits as a discussion topic because it seems there are few solutions, and they have become “sick of talking about it.”

We believe, though, that you need to talk about it—and think about it—and even do something about it! What does balance (some call it work/life integration) mean to you and to your employees? (It is different for everyone.)

One plant manager we heard about gives each of the 90 members of his team a small amount of money each year to do something (anything!) to bring balance into their lives. His only request: “Tell me how you’ve used the money.” The ways in which employees spend the money underscore how individual our balance needs are. Employees report spending their money on ballroom dance lessons, a drum set, gardening tools, and instruction in tai chi and kickboxing. The manager doesn’t spend a lot of money, and the message he sends is crystal-clear. Do you have a discretionary budget that you might spend this way?

We are not suggesting that your employees’ balance issues are your concern alone or that you must provide the answers. We are suggesting, however, that you can take actions to encourage balance and thus wellness.

Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them—work, family, health, friends, and spirit—you’re keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls—family, health, friends, and spirit—are made of glass. If you drop one of these, it will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged, or even shattered. It will never be the same. You must understand that.

—Brian Dyson, former CEO of Coca-Cola

Overwhelm Is an Understatement

The pressures to do more with less. Move faster than the competition. Be more creative, more innovative, more distinct. Do it with fewer dollars. Be available at all times. These pressures push many to say that work just asks too much.

In the United States and many other parts of the world (e.g., Thailand, Korea, Pakistan), the work week keeps getting longer, usually in the hopes of creating a competitive advantage. That’s in spite of decades of research that confirm that “the sweet spot is 40 hours a week—and that while adding another 20 hours provides a minor increase in productivity, that increase only lasts for three to four weeks, and then turns negative.” The good news is that in 6 of the top 10 most competitive countries in the world (Sweden, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the UK), it’s illegal to demand more than a 48-hour workweek.⁵²

So what about you? What example do you set as a manager, and what do you expect from your people? Ask yourself these questions:

• Do I promote workaholism? Am I a workaholic?

• Do I expect my employees to travel or work on weekends? How often?

• Do I hold numerous early morning or early evening meetings?

• Do I compliment employees for their long hours or, instead, for the quality work they complete?

How did you do? Often managers discourage balance by the examples they set or by what they expect and reward.

Stretched and Stressed

I used up all my sick days so I called in dead.

—Anonymous

Hans Selye, the founder of the field of stress management, said, “To be free of stress is to be dead.” We agree that just living is often stressful. But Selye and others have found that, although optimum levels of stress produce peak performance, overdoses can definitely lead to poor performance and even to illness.

In organizations, we seldom see too little stress. We sometimes see the optimum stress level and high performance results. Most often, however, we see stress overload and negative results on health and on productivity. There seems to be a high correlation between lack of balance and stress. Where balance is missing, the workload typically appears to be very high and stressful. When people have balanced lives, they seem to have less work stress, or they just manage it better.

For 40 years, we focused, as a medical profession, on the deleterious effects of stress. We now know that with people who are stressed, there is a direct correlation with addictive behavior, cardiovascular disease, infections and some types of cancer. But we hadn’t looked at the opposite. If stress could make you sick, could happiness make you better? And the evidence shows it can.⁵³

—Dr. Deepak Chopra

Both Switzerland and France have labor laws that protect employees’ health and wellness. Swiss law prescribes the “duty of care,” where companies are not allowed to accept or create a work environment that is hostile to employees’ health. Meanwhile, French employers must ensure the physical and mental health of employees. This includes taking measures against any psychological suffering and stress. Employers must therefore remove unrealistic deadlines and heavy workloads. In turn, they must ensure that employees have control over their own workloads and schedules.

Perhaps you manage in a country that has no such laws. There are still many ways that you, as an individual manager, can promote a healthy work environment. Here are a few:

When we create a desirable workplace and find good ways to have work-life balance, we’ll attract and we’ll retain the best people—and that’s our competitive advantage.

—Lewis Platt, former CEO, Hewlett-Packard

Small Steps to Big Change

Try some of these stress busters. You go first—then pass on the ideas to your talented people:

• Shift some of the work to others if possible. Think about who could help and how to ask for the help.

• Take more breaks. Get up; move around; go for a quick walk.

• Take a break from “electronic leashes”—declare a smart-phone-free Wednesday morning (unless that increases their stress!).

• Learn relaxation, visualization, or breathing techniques. Take a stress management or mindfulness class.

• Exercise as a way to relieve stress. Join a gym or take up power walking, yoga or jogging.

• Implement “no meetings on Fridays.” Think of the work you could get done!

• Seek professional help or counseling.

• Sleep and eat. How long has it been since you took a lunch break—away from your desk?

Take a vacation—a real one. One manager we know tells his people not to check voice mail or e-mail! (Yes, that means you’d need to have backup support.)

Bottom Line

Savvy managers view work/life balance and stress reduction initiatives as strategic business tools, not as employee perks. If your employees are well and feel a balance between work and life outside work, you are far more likely to have a well-functioning organization. Your best employees will work hard, produce for you, and stick around in an environment that promotes their emotional, mental, and physical health and fitness.